Vision of submariners

A variety of vision tests have been administered to submariners over the years. The results show that the average submariner, though maintaining a normal, healthy visual system, has distant acuity somewhat below normal and manifests more myopia, esophoria, and less accommodative power than men of comparable age, as documented in the literature. The reasons for these changes are unknown but probably involve confinement; whether confinement peculiar to the submarine of the "confinement" of urban living is the more important for these changes is discussed.